Adurgari
Created byShaikh Mohammadi
Setting and usagetrade
Purpose
secret cant
Sourceslocal varieties of Persian?[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologadur1234

Ādurgari is a secret language of the nomadic Shaikh Mohammadi group of peddlers of east Afghanistan, used especially in the presence of outsiders. It is taught to children starting at the age of six or seven as they would be speaking Persian until then;[2] all adults speak it in addition to their native Dari.[3]: 36  The name is apparently derived from a word referring to their activity of peddling (ādur), and it has tentatively been suggested this might indicate a possible connection with the Harduri people of Uzbekistan.[1]

The following five words are attested in the language: čamlai 'bread', danab 'girl, woman', duka 'house', lām 'meat', and rašuk 'man'.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Pstrusinska, Jadwiga (2013). Secret languages of Afghanistan and their speakers. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-1-4438-6441-1.
  2. ^ Pstrusińska, Jadwiga (2014). Secret Languages of Afghanistan and Their Speakers. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-6441-1.
  3. ^ Olesen, A. (1987). "Peddling in East Afghanistan: Adaptive Strategies of the Peripatetic Sheikh Mohammadi". In Rao, Aparna (ed.). The Other Nomads: Peripatetic Minorities in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Cologne: Böhlau. pp. 35–63. ISBN 3-412-08085-3. Rao (1986) additionally mentions Pashto as being spoken.
  4. ^ Rao, Aparna (1995). "Marginality and language use: the example of peripatetics in Afghanistan". Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. 5 (2): 69–95.
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